According to its website, Earth Economics offers "a pragmatic, collaborative approach to help organizations make sound investment and policy decisions that mitigate risk, add value, and build resilience by taking nature into account."[3] The organization currently focuses on the global and regional priorities of working lands, freshwater, oceans, forests, and communities.

Ecosystem Services Valuation: Earth Economics is best known for their expertise in natural capital valuation. The Ecosystem Valuation Toolkit (EVT), an expanding and searchable database of ecosystem service values, serves as the foundation for these analyses.

Originally known as the Asia-Pacific Environmental Exchange (APEX), the organization was founded as a project of The Tides Center. The initial co-founders were David Batker, Jim Puckett, Annie Leonard, Joshua Farley, Joshua Reyneveld, and Isabel De La Torre. Earth Economics evolved into an autonomous organization and received IRS 501(c)3 tax exempt, public charity status in March 2006.

From 2006 until 2016, co-founder David Batker acted as Earth Economics' Executive Director and Chief Economist. In 2016, Batker moved to a joint President and Chief Economist position. Batker's research and advocacy focuses on the value that natural systems have in providing food, water, flood risk reduction, climate stabilization, and other benefits. His work has been used to establish the value of watersheds and new funding mechanisms for maintaining natural capital.[4]

Earth Economics has a track record of working alongside NGOs, businesses, and governmental organizations to inform investment and shift local and international policy in ways that account for the benefits of ecosystem services. Since 2013, Earth Economics has been working to incorporate ecosystem services in federal benefit-cost analysis and accounting practices.